I always wanted to make music as a child probably from around the age of 8. I was always interested in the piano but never got the opportunity to join a music program. But even before that, as far as I can remember (and that’s pretty far, I have memories going as far back as when I was 2 years old) I was always around music. I wasn’t around my father for to long but he was a DJ, and my brother was constantly listening to dancehall music. Back then and there (panama) as good as I can remember, it was Yellow man, Supa Cat, and El General.
Then I came to the states around the age of 4 ½ accompanied by one of my brothers. As I aged, he was still listening to dancehall this is the early 90’s now. Then I started to hear names like Capleton, Buju Banton, Shabba ranks, Beenie Man, Bounty Killa, etc. Now I myself am beginning to fall in love with dancehall. Now im in school around 3rd grade doing beats on the cafeteria table with other friends. Then I picked up percussion from my brother (which was part of a marching band in panama) around 5th grade and ran with it. I remember it was in the kitchen where I first learned (on one of those blue Danish butter cookie cans), I was shocked at how fast his fingers moved.
I wasn’t much into hip hop/rap at the time until I hit the 7th grade. It just didn’t appeal to me that much. Even now quite few tracks still mostly consist of bass kicks and snares and a few samples here and there and I like to hear variety, but that’s a whole other topic. Back then the biggest track in my opinion was more money more problems (ill remember that BIG verse till the day I die) some Alliyah tracks and I was also into quite a bit of R&B, 112 did it up with cupid that was probably the last dance for every prom that year. Anything Timbaland made was hot to me, I think bad boy was at its best at the time, by the way “its all about the benjamins” was another banga.
Not to far after that I got cable and started hearin all kinda shit. I liked some techno songs, drum n bass, trance etc. My brother also got me into Sound Tracks, I specifically remember he had the True Lies soundtrack and to many others to name. Now im in high school, reggaeton came out I forget exactly when it came out but I didn’t like it. Even though im from panama and all it just didn’t sound good to me. It all sounded like old reggae beats and was just to slow. Dont get it twisted though there are a couple bangas out there, El General had a better flow than a lot of these new dudes. And for all those that don’t know Reggaeton originated in Panama and was just called Spanish Reggae.
There was a peiod between 1999 and 2001 that I felt dancehall had a slump. There were a couple hot riddims here and there but not too many. And riddims are just funny, and by funny I mean it can be a hot riddim but if the right artist don’t get on it it just wont be a hot track. The volume riddim was nuts so was lightning, martial arts, Then came Diwali which just helped dancehall make its mark a little harder. If you don’t remember diwali just remember Wayne Wonder – No letting go and Sean Paul – Get Busy. After that all hell broke loose, and that was just a couple riddims from Greensleves, im not even going to start with the VP Records Riddim Driven catalogue. After dat all kinda artist just buss out pon di scene from Vybz Kartel to Bling Dawg just to name a couple which have been in the background for a while but just starting to get recognition, don’t know if you remember the track from Bounty Killa called hi grade forever but Vybz wrote that.
Now its late 2005 and and I link with Q which runs XyayX. He put me on to reason around November then I officially started using it January 1 2006. I was going hard at it, I was making all kind of wack beats. I began to excel at fast pace, around February I got my own equipment so I could produce whenever and whatever I wanted to without the harsh criticism. By march which was just 3 months after began my so called quest, I started to produce tracks that even had me astonished. This was when I made up my mind and said this is for me. Now I have a year and a few months behind me and im producing all kind of different Genre’s like Dancehall, hip hop, Techno and some instrumentals that I don’t even know what genre to place them under.
I even began to dibble and dabble in a little bit of song writing and wrote my first song Love you tonight which still isn’t quite finished but just wanted to put out something so the people could hear my skills and some people just don’t understand some of my beats so I have write something to it so they get the idea. Im a producer before anything but some instrumentals just call to me and I just have to reply.
-Nando the Producer
-Konchus the artist |
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